TITLE: Legerdemain
AUTHOR: Kravius
WEBSITE: http://kravius.wordpress.com/
DISTRIBUTION: Twisting the Hellmouth, My Blog,, FicSite, FFN, Nowhere else please.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. World Of Warcraft Belongs to Blizzard. Any other crossovers belong to who they belong to as well. I make no claims on them, nor do I make any money from this.
SUMMARY: Appearing to do magic when in fact you aren't isn't entirely new to Xander Harris, but with the boost he got on Halloween and something from his past sometimes he wonders himself.
CROSSOVERS: World Of Warcraft (Main), various others especially later on, most likely Heroes, Charmed, Alias and perhaps some others like Lara Croft and perhaps Mickey Mouse. Kidding on that last one - honest.
FEEDBACK: Please do send me feedback, it helps me to direct the story and learn from any mistakes I may have made.
CATEGORY: Action/Adventure/Crossover.
RELATIONSHIPS: Various. X/Differing.
RATING: FR21, for violence, horror and some sexual content.
SPOILERS: Various for all seasons of BtVS, and some for WoW up to and including what I know of Cataclysm.
WARNINGS: Nothing that I'm aware of, a little darker than Shifting Hearts though for sure. Can be a little harsh to some of the characters but I wouldn't go as far as to call it bashing.
EDITOR: The Cat Lady
AUTHORS NOTES:

Yes I know, a second story with a similar premise probably isn't the best idea in the entire world. That said this does go off into a different direction shortly after it starts. The main idea is similar though, but I'm going about things in a different way this time and as such the story could be quite a bit darker as almost a side effect. Let me know what you think on that regard.

This is what I get for starting a new class and thinking, hmmm wonder what would happen if I… stupid brain!

Doing strange things with the WoW universe as always, and I've brought Buffy up to 2007 for S3. So that should help those who know that WoW wasn't released all the way back in the 90's. Though even then I assume he was at 70-ish when he chose his costume so bring WoW up a year or so as well. All other crossover shifted around to match I will try to make it fairly clear in the actual story itself, otherwise I'll be writing this overview all night.


Kravius.



~##~


Legerdemain
Chapter One

The vampire came in hard with a devastating haymaker that would have taken Xander's head off had he not dodged out of the way. Xander responded by head-butting the demon in the face and following up with an elbow that crushed cartilage. There was a line of quicksilver cut into the night and one of the solid silver daggers, blessed and treated with holy water, was rammed home into the vampires heart. A quick movement of his arm later and Xander was pulling his blade out to prevent it dusting along with the vampire.

He span in place, one arm lashing out and holding a dagger in a reverse grip he slashed the next vampire across the throat. That put it out of the fight for a moment leaving Xander to deal with the final vamp. Pushing some of his longish hair out of his eyes Xander made a come-hither motion with his hand. The snarling demon dashed at him with hands outstretched.

Xander danced back out of its way, jumped up and planted a foot into its passing back. The vampire's arms waved around as it suddenly lost control, sending it careening into a tombstone. As it shook off the shock, Xander almost lazily planted a dagger into the still choking vampire's back, hitting the heart with the blessed dagger. Another quick retrieval, and he was wiping dust from his shoulders as the vampire exploded into dust.

A cough distracted Xander from wiping off his daggers, making him turn around and cock an eyebrow up at what awaited him. There were fifteen or more vampires arrayed in front of him, and they did not look happy at his casual disregard for the life of their comrades. Xander flashed them a smile, a quick salute and then threw down his hand. There was a sudden flash, and smoke billowed upwards from the floor.

As one, the vampires rushed into his position; only to find that he had vanished without a trace.

~##~

Xander Harris walked through the hallways of Sunnydale high with virtual impunity. These days it did not go well for those that got on his nerves, or even looked at him strangely. This did not seem natural to those who had known Xander before his change in worldview, but one year ago almost to the day he had undergone a very enlightening experience.

It had all started with a computer game.

Willow had called him around to her house one night a few years ago and wanted to show him something. He had gone, because, well it was Willow, so why would he not? Once there he had been directed up to her bedroom and when he had arrived at her door, it had taken several knocks to get an answer out of her.

It turned out that she wanted to show him a game, a computer game, which was always more her thing than his; at that time he did not even own a computer. He had some skills, thanks to his red-haired friend, but he was no wiz kid. Still he had watched and listened to her explaining it until he got to the reason why she thought he would like it. Dungeons and Dragons, it was not to him, but she was extolling its virtues and how it would replace Pen and Paper role-playing. He and Jesse had been very much into the scene for several years leading up to Jesse's death.

Xander had quite lost the taste for it after that.

Still, he listened, he watched, and eventually he played. He created a character, and for several months before Willow lost interest in all things game related, he did quite well. He made himself a nice and detailed back-story as befitting someone of his PnP history and went through the motions of questing and instancing; which is to say he did dungeons. He had quite enjoyed it, but to him it lacked a cohesive story line that was so often supplied by a good dungeon master.

That was that, until a year later he noticed that Willow was a bit down about something and it was Halloween night. He decided that Willow cheering up was worth dipping into his road trip fund, and had gone out of his way to put a costume together for her. He had chosen to go as his character from the game.

Sometimes he doubted his own sanity, considering how often things went wrong in Sunnydale.

That night, for one night only, a man called Ethan Rayne, who happened to supply most of Xander's costume, turned every one of his customers into their costume choice. There had been a whole slew of super hero's in the town, along side their villain's. Willow had gone as a ghost, her classic Casper outfit hiding her true costume, but since she had gotten the sheet-like costume from Ethan, she had, for one night, been dead and become a spirit; a thought that still gave Xander the wrong sort of chills. Buffy had gone as a noblewoman from circa 1800 which, in all honesty, was probably the most useless and annoying thing on the planet for the evening; at least according to Willow.

Xander had no first-hand knowledge of the goings-on of his friends for that evening. As soon as the spell had washed over him, he had disappeared for the night. Quite literally, in fact, as his character's class allowed him to effectively hide the entire evening. However, he certainly had not been idle that evening. When the spell had ended and all the dust had settled, Xander had found a nice stash of stolen goods in his room and a note from himself.

That would have been an end of it, even with the odd note, but not for Xander apparently. He had retained full knowledge of the evening, all the skills of his character, all the memories and some of the personality traits.

This is just one of the reasons he suffered no fools gladly.

He had asked his friends about that night afterwards for some time to come; had they retained anything from the evening? Buffy had kept some knowledge of French, but that had faded fast. Willow only kept touching walls carefully to make sure she would not fall through. He had then spread out his questioning, but no-one else him had retained the amount of information he had.

At first, he put that down to typical Xander luck, but then he wondered what was different about him. To this day, he still did not know why, and after much deliberation, he had set out to find out just how much he had retained.

Everything, was the short answer; everything conceivable was stuffed into his mind and body. He had put on some muscle, mostly tightening up what he already had. His senses seemed somewhat sharper, but he put that down to his character's training. He could effectively move through a room without anyone even knowing he was there. He tested and tested, finding out what he could and could not from his class. Then once he was happy with his knowledge, he wondered about other abilities from the game. He had a built-in vampire sensor now, and could tell how 'well' someone was just by concentrating on them. He could tell if they were sick or angry by the same method. It only worked on one person at a time, but it was useful.

It had certainly given Billy Fordham a nasty surprise, and nicely sidestepped an issue Buffy may have had with the person from her past.

He could cook - even better than he had already been able to. He knew some basic first-aid, which somehow had been applied to a real life setting. When he thought about his professions, he had come across a nasty shock.

While it was true he could pick any lock he had tried, he could also make his own clothing. He was able to construct weapons, and a host of other abilities. It was as if the spell had not quite known what to do, so it had tapped into the consciousness of the entire town and pulled the knowledge needed from the people under its effect. Xander knew that Willow had a character with just about every possible combination of professions, and he supposed the spell had gotten a lot of information from her.

The engineering was turning out to be very useful in 'doing up' a cheap bike he had picked up for a song from the buy, sell and trades.

So while he had been worried at first, he had learned that he had essentially just been given an upgrade, and should not look a gift horse in the mouth.

However, there were downsides.

His character had been a rogue ie a thief and an assassin. Highly trained and schooled in the arts of deception, thievery and silent killing. That had changed his moral outlook to the point where it was virtually unrecognizable from what it had been before that night. When he was short on money for lunch or just because he was bored, he would swipe someone's wallet because it was easier than going to the ATM. He thought nothing of stealing from graveyards, and in fact it was turning out to be highly profitable. He became as angry as always, but where as it had been all heat and very little burn before, it was now cold and calculating. He did not get mad anymore - he got even, and that was another of the reasons people tended to stay away from him now.

His loner character's persona had rubbed off on him more than a little too; he had withdrawn from the gang for a few reasons, and being a bit of a lone wolf was only one. He had found that he was becoming increasingly angry at the tactical decisions Buffy made and the fact that Giles allowed it to happen to the point where he had actually pointed out a few of her blunders and gotten himself kicked out of the group. He hadn't thought that Buffy wanted only yes-men in her group of friends, but had found out otherwise fairly sharply.

Of course he still talked to Willow, but she had not much liked the changes he was undergoing either, although she still remained supportive. Xander hated to think of a world without a Willow and Xander in it, so was grateful for her continued friendship all the time.

As a side effect of his larcenous ways, Xander was making a nice sideline stealing from crypts and vampires, occasionally swiping stuff from directly under what was supposed to be a supernaturally enhanced nose. When there was something of interest to the council, he sold it to them via Giles. Another potential piece of badness he had attained was stealing the Du Lac Cross from a crypt. They had later found out that Spike had needed it for a spell to re-empower his sire Drusilla. At the time of course Xander had just thought it was rather ornate for a cross and shown it to Giles. He still spoke with the man, though now only usually on business.

That single piece had set him up for life. The council had been looking for one for the past century, so were very generous with his finder's. He had used some of that money to emancipate himself from his parents, paid of their mortgage and then moved out.

He was now a property owner; a nice house close to the university campus and not too far from school. Not that he had any intention of going to college, but it was nice to check out the honeys on campus on occasion. He had a garage attached to the property in which he worked on his bike and a few gadgets, and a Broadband connection to the internet and a host of other goodies that he had always wanted but never been able to afford. He had even brought Willow's World of Warcraft account from her, that being the game from which his character had come. He even played it on occasion, just to keep up with things and to remind himself of anything he needed.

As a side effect of being ousted from the gang, he had missed some important events in their lives, but had also been fray adjacent, which had pleased Buffy no end. It also allowed him to look at things from an outsider's point of view and he spotted that Jenny Calender was not who she appeared to be. He had confronted her with it after class one evening and had gotten a teacher out of it. She had taught him all he now knew about computers and, more importantly, hacking. Blackmail was too strong a word for it, but it fitted just as well as nudging her in the right direction. He had also spotted when Angel became evil almost immediately and, given that he and Jenny, or rather Janna, were close, he had realized what she was working on. One late night he had saved her life, and gained a friend for the rest of his natural life. It was at that point she had *really* taken a shine to him, and showed him everything she knew.

It was a useful thing to learn.

The trouble with being a rogue in a game like World of Warcraft was that most of the skills were a little out of date. However, because WoW liked to be different, there were things such as Helicopters and Motorcycles and he had taken it upon himself to update his skill set. Since he had applied himself so diligently, it had not taken as long as he had at first feared. Xander now liked to consider himself a modern day rogue. The fact he was rich certainly had not hurt either since he was able to get private, and secure tuition for the various subjects he had wanted to learn.

Therefore, he had missed some things and he had averted some when it came to the Scooby gang. However, it did not stop him from going out nightly to do his own form of patrol.

That form of patrol usually meant taking out a few vampires. He had found he could cope with five new vampires alone, or less older vampires. He figured that one on one he could take a master, as long as they were not too old. It also entailed going through some interesting looking crypts and that is where his skills as a rogue really stood him in good stead. It was surprising to find out just how many crypts had interesting things inside, and just how many of those were protected via various quite ingenious traps or locking mechanisms.

Nestled in his backpack at that very moment was an item he had picked up the night before. Shortly before having to pull a Vanish on a large group of vampires he assumed had been sent by someone to get it. He was on his way to Giles to find out what it was exactly, and to tell him the details of the crypt and traps around, since it was this information which should ensure Giles took him seriously. The fact that he might make a few dollars on the side had not passed him by either.

He walked into the library, keeping his demeanor light. Visits to the library during the day never seemed to go well for him since he had been removed form the gang. Buffy was of the opinion that he should stay the hell out, which was almost amusing since it was after all a public place.

"Oh, it's you."

Xander let out an internal sigh at the sound of that voice. Once he had lived to hear it, now not so much. He was starting to realize that his hero was a seriously flawed character, and she was not in fact his hero any longer. "Well hello there, Buff, how the heck are ya?" he asked with a hint of sarcasm riding on his tone. He glanced over to see that she was sitting at the 'research table' eating a sandwich. The blond haired slayer was not alone though, and it was not anyone he recognized. A complete brunette bombshell was sitting next to her, glancing at the sandwich Buffy was eating longingly. Not that Buffy noticed that, of course. That would mean looking up from her own carefully constructed little world, something that Buffy occasionally had some trouble doing.

"I'm good, thanks. Angel tells me that you were making trouble again last night." Buffy told him in her slayer tone.

Xander rolled his eyes. If it were not for the fact he frankly adored Janna he would bemoan saving her at times. Since he had, she had cursed Angel's soul back into him a few days after Xander had saved her. For some reason, and with Buffy pushing it, Angel had been taken back into the fold and given a free pass on all the murdering and killing he had done as Angelus. That ticked Xander off quite a bit, especially since one of his friends had damn near died because of the vampire. He and Angel would never get on because of that, despite the fact that Xander had no interest in pursuing Buffy anymore. Xander would almost go as far as to say he hated the vampire if not for the fact that the entire affair seemed to have kicked Angel into action. He was a much more productive member of the team now and was not hiding in the shadows any longer. He patrolled with Buffy all the time and gathered information when she was not around. Of course, Xander was not too happy that Angel was gathering information on him.

"It was no trouble, just a couple of vampires," Xander assured her with a fake smile. It was almost sad how far they were growing apart now. He was just glad that Buffy had no interest in trying to pry him and Willow apart. Though he didn't much like Buffy's influence on his best friend of a lifetime, in truth he knew there was little he could do about it, other than protecting the redhead as best as he was able if it all went to hell.

Xander looked over to the obviously hungry brunette and smiled at her, "I'm Xander." He told her by way of an introduction, since Buffy was not going to do it.

"Faith," she replied laconically leaning back in the chair and giving him the once over. She had to admit she liked what she saw. Dark colors that suited him, some soft leather but no silk, and a stance that said the guy knew how to look after himself and then some. He almost reminded her of a slayer; he had that same confident stance that said he could handle whatever came his way, no matter what. Though she knew just by looking at him that she could take him if the need arose. There was obviously no love lost between him and Buffy, and she was trying to get in with the group so she could not appear to be too friendly. However, the idea of trying to get in with any group went against her grain. Therefore, it was possible that she would change her mind about that; especially since Buffy was so wrapped up in herself it was almost funny.

"Good to meet you, but if you'll excuse me, I gotta see the G-Man." Xander told her with a smile, and promptly walked away. Faith was a little surprised by that; she was not used to men virtually ignoring her. He had introduced himself and all, but that was it. She had at least expected him to make a pass at her or something.

A few minutes passed, which Faith whiled away by dreaming of a chocolate fudge sundae and thinking about patrol the evening, before when suddenly the stuffy Brit watcher, who had introduced himself as Giles, almost ran into the room. "I must find my translation dictionary," he mumbled as he dived into the book cage.

Xander walked back out of Giles' office at a much more sedate pace, leaned against the wall, damn near fading from sight by route until he remembered himself and concentrated on staying visible.

"Right - here it is," Giles said walking back to the table, absently moving Faith's feet off the table and letting a book drop in front of one of the chairs.

Faith frowned, not at the leg moving, "You're doing that here, in the open?"

"What - hmm, oh yes, of course." Giles responded.

"Ain't ya worried someone will come in and see ya?"

He did not reply, so Buffy did in his stead, "No one comes in here - well mostly they know not to." Buffy told her, and then glared at Xander.

Xander held a hand to his heart, "I'm not welcome anymore in a public library? Oh, how will I cope? Oh, I know, I'll just ignore it."

Faith smirked, but did not say anything yet.

Buffy on the other hand got out of her chair and walked towards Xander a little menacingly, "I've told you before that you're not welcome here, not after what you said."

"I only pointed out that Patton you ain't," Xander replied with a wide smile.

Buffy growled and stepped a little closer, glaring up at the dark haired young man threateningly. The effect was rather spoiled by the fact that he towered over her by a good foot, and was very unimpressed. "Look Buffy, if you can't take a criticism get out of the kitchen before you get burned." Xander said with an eyebrow cocked.

Faith was shocked; one that he had the guts to say it, and secondly she doubted that she could take Buffy. She had one hell of a rep in the community and her Watcher had told her a fair bit about her as well.

"Buffy" Giles called out warningly, "As it happens, Xander often brings me things of interest and I think this may well be classed in the same way. I'm not entirely certain yet but it appears to be a diary. Written by someone close to the then mayor of the town. Being close to a hundred years ago, this is written in common demonic. That should give you a hint of how dangerous this man was. It could contain some very pertinent information on why the town was built on a Hellmouth, and perhaps some information on the Hellmouth itself."

"Oh, right, Been out stealing things that don't belong to you again Xander?"

"I can hardly steal things that *do* belong to me Buffy," Xander pointed out with a smirk.

"Xander, do stop being tiresome, and if you can't behave *I* will ask you to leave." Giles put in before Buffy could say anything.

"Whatever you say G-Man. So that's of interest then?"

Giles nodded, "Our usual arrangement will suffice, I trust?"

"I trust you G-Man, and if you do stiff me, I'll just swipe it from your house."

tbc